caulfield12

Justin Gage?

QUOTE (IowaSoxFan @ Nov 12, 2014 -> 01:27 PM) Is Yoan Moncada worth two Micker Adolfo's? If the answer is yes, then make the deal. He's worth 5-10 Adolfo's, which are basically lottery tickets that usually don't turn out.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Nov 12, 2014 -> 11:20 PM) Season ticket holders provide EIGHTY percent of the revenue? How? Because most teams have season ticket (guaranteed attendance) in the 8-22,000 range, with some quite a bit higher than the high teens/low 20's. That's already pre-ticket revenue for the entire season before they even open up the gates. If you go back over the last five seasons or so, you'll see that a significant walk-up attendance the day of the game is around 4-6,000 tickets (not counting other single game tickets sold). It might be 75/25 (season ticket to individual/day-of-game), but I'm willing to wager that's pretty close to the breakdown for revenues from ticket sales.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Nov 12, 2014 -> 10:00 PM) Gregorson built his track record in pitching parks and will be paid a premium. Soriano's FB% will put him out of Hahn's consideration. Romo has arm issues and lost velocity. I'd be interested im Jansen/K-Rod if the price is right. Hoachevar is the guy I want. Hochevar will be around $5 million, maybe two years $8.5-9 million. Or one of those options for 2016 based on appearances, like $5 million, then $7 million in 2016 with 65-70+ appearances, something attainable.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Nov 12, 2014 -> 11:14 AM) I think it is way too likely Sox and Dodgers match up. I even wonder if a deal goes as far as Sox getting an OF and one of the Dodgers maligned relievers + cash for Danks. I wouldn't be opposed to buying low on Wilson/League. Might even turn into something mega with legit prospect or two coming to the Sox as well along with Ramirez. Probably too complicated but again, see a lot of pieces that could make sense. Guerra and Belisario were maligned enough... League, MAYBE. But Wilson, not much interest. His performance really declined, as well as his velocity, in 2014.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Nov 12, 2014 -> 09:11 PM) I want a whole new bullpen next season. Miller sounds great. I will say this. Please please Mr. Hahn, before you make any offseason moves (and I hope you make TONS) please get your scouts together (without Buddy Bell) and discuss these guys (like Miller) and how you project them to play next season and seasons to come. Surely these scouts have opinions on CURRENT players as well as draft prospects. I mean I do blame the Sox for acquiring/signing stiffs like Keppinger and that starting pitcher whose name escapes me for last season (the guy who was a KC Royal) and Teahen and all the hacks who have sucked. If Andrew Miller projects to remain good, then sign him. If not, pass. Same with the other free agents. Don't just sign guys without PROJECTING. Paulino. By the way, Barry Zito's on the comeback trail. FIVE LEFTIES OR DEATH!

So to summarize....Soriano/Romo/Janssen depending on price, but better bets than investing a lot into a middle reliever like Gregerson whose numbers were put up halfway due to magical park effects in the NL, etc. (Maybe that's another reason to shy away from Romo as well.) Then you have the big debate about Miller, and whether he can morph into a LHP closer or not.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 12, 2014 -> 08:22 PM) With as left-hand heavy as our lineup and org are, I'm not that worried about questionable splits. We've got a RH heavy lineup anyway, we've got 2 righties around as our middle infielders and they could certainly fill in the other side of a platoon. If we added a RH hitting OF to team with him, then basically I think we're set up to run out a deep roster that is pretty darn well balanced and it just requires Robin to actually use the guys in the right role. The biggest problem is that most of those RH bats aren't full-time outfielders and are more DH's...Torii Hunter, Michael Morse, Nelson Cruz, Billy Butler, etc. We can't be sure about Yasmani Tomas, other than that the White Sox aren't going to risk $100 million for an unproven RH corner outfielder who's more Viciedo than Puig/Cespedes/Moncada/R.Castillo. http://www.startribune.com/sports/twins/282360051.html If you go defense first for the outfield, then you have Rasmus, Rios...with arguments about Aoki and Denorfia. Not a pretty picture.

QUOTE (Lillian @ Nov 12, 2014 -> 07:45 PM) A couple of points: 1) If Martinez signed for 4 years, $68 Million, with the Tigers, it would have cost the Sox more. Didn't he indicate that he really wanted to return to Detroit, if they were close on their offer? 2) The Sox do not need just another left handed bat. They specifically need a MIDDLE OF THE ORDER, left handed bat. Therefore, names like Colby Rasmus do not qualify. Melky Cabrera, perhaps, but I'm not holding my breath. Then there's only LaRoche (and he has some questionable splits which will worsen with age), Melky Cabrera and Markakis, and Markakis isn't a middle of the order hitter, either. You absolutely don't pay Sandoval $100-120 million to be a DH, either. Maybe in 2-3 years of that 5-6 year deal, he would end up at DH, but he's not a true impact hitter (with the exception of the post-season) over the last 2-3 seasons. Someone like Heyward, at this point in his career, isn't even that right now...although in the beginning it felt like he would be a 3-4-5 guy for 15 years.

Soriano really tailed off last season....same with Janssen, if I remember correctly. That said, there's always a risk with closers. One year, Fernando Rodney's dominant and the next he couldn't close out an American Legion team without walking the bases loaded and throwing a wild pitch or hitting a batter. Brandon Morrow's another name to keep an eye on. Uehara, but he's probably passed his expiration date.

The only one of those that should be considered would be Ravelo, possibly. I wouldn't put Montas or Rondon there unless you had no choice, which I don't think is the case yet. Same with Anderson.

QUOTE (Brian @ Nov 12, 2014 -> 05:00 PM) Interstellar was good but not great. Really long and really lost me as it went along. Nolan needs to simplify things for jibronies like me. Just try reading the source material by physics professor Kip Thorne...I think he teaches at Cal Tech. Black Holes and something or other is the name of the book. I TRIED to read it, but English/History/Poly Sci people don't have much of a chance, although the book was supposed written for the "layman." Interstellar was very good, but it felt at least 30 minutes too long. It was Nolan striving to do a great movie and coming up just short, but definitely swinging for the fences and not playing it safe. Personally, I liked Inception more, but part of that was the cast. I also feel that it got bogged down a little bit in terms of simplifying the physics involved while still telling a compelling story...whereas a movie like Gravity simply was action/excitement and the human dialogue/back story part was lacking. Maybe this was the opposite...not quite enough action, too much set-up and back story. Still really enjoyable, even at around 2 hours and 45 minutes (meeting the Brian "value" threshold of a 2+ hour movie, haha). And it's a pretty intellectual movie...it makes you think and teases your brain as your try to follow the logic/sequencing of the movie, which is pretty linear compared to Inception but still dense.

There's no way the Mets are going to sign Hanley to play SS, not with Wright at 3B. Of course, Wright's also been on the decline, but I don't think Ramirez is an everyday SS, period. And getting him with the assumption Wright will be injured is a bit much, because then you're blocking Wright when he returns. As long as A. Cabrera, Lowrie and Drew are out there....maybe Marco Scutaro if he's healthy...the Mets aren't going to be forced to do something, not like the Yankees who have to make a big splash. And the Dodgers can always use Dee Gordon there (not to mention the two Cuban middle infielders they signed for a bit of coin).

Or you can easily see Montas getting pushed late in the season (ala Jenks in 2005) if the White Sox are within 5 games of first place around the All-Star break. Who nows, maybe Sanburn or Webb will figure things out in the meantime. There's also Guerra, who would have to be considered a better bet at closer than Putnam, who has 7th-8th inning set-up guy written all over him.

QUOTE (Lillian @ Nov 12, 2014 -> 06:32 PM) I don't see any other viable option to fill the need for a left handed, middle of the order bat. I'm now in favor of continuing to acquire young talent, and to target 2016 as the year to seriously contend. Let's see what they have in Garcia, Rodon and a couple of the young middle infielders, maybe even Wilkins. Then fill in the holes, in the next off season. That would mean that Hahn looks to the international market, to spend some of that money, burning a hole in his pocket. Might as well also trade Alexei, and get more youngsters. Sorry to be so negative, but I don't see how they put a contending team on the field this year. Even if they spend and extra $40 million, over last year, whom are they going to acquire, that would make them competitive for this season? The best fall-back option for a one year (or one year and an option) "placeholder" that provides upside (but could easily blow up) is Colby Rasmus in terms of LH bats. Cabrera will probably be too expensive, and the PEDs history and "contract year" offensive salary drive has to be another concern. If they miss on all their targets, they can STILL combine Rasmus, a Saunders/Viciedo trade, Eaton and Garcia and not blow their budget up before 2016. Then a Brett Anderson, Masterson or Volquez (one year and option/s) for the rotation and adding to the bullpen (Romo or Janssen) and you're at least at .500 and one more offseason away, with a decent chance of competing in 2015.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Nov 12, 2014 -> 05:28 PM) Haha, if you're trying to project a rotation, and one of the slots is "?????????", it's probably not a strong argument against the strength of said rotation. In all fairness, that's a pretty decent description of the 3/4/5 spots in the current White Sox rotation, at least #5. Obviously Rodon's expected to change that, but Noesi's no more a sure thing than Meyer or May with the Twins.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Nov 12, 2014 -> 05:14 PM) I just don't agree with this. I think that it is an argument made by marketing and echoed by media, but I don't think actually affects ticket sales in a significant way, at least not in Chicago. Firstly, season tickets make up a much smaller portion of total attendance than people assume. It's significant, but the industry is moving toward groups. Secondly, while all STH will be very vocal about the team's direction, the majority of them are going to renew regardless. They'll grumble, but they'll be there. You will lose some that are on the fence, but it ends up being a much smaller piece than it seems. The largest portion of the crowd on any given night is walk-ups, and they are, by far, the most sensitive to wins and losses. You can look at our attendance figures the past decade and see this pattern in play. Most recently, even the IN season record hasn't affected things much. The years when you see attendance increasing are the years AFTER a successful, winning season. So the overall point is that, IMO, the Sox should not be thinking about their acquisitions in terms of sending a signal to fans; they should just be trying to build a winner as efficiently as possible. The faster they can do that, the faster they'll be in the black. That doesn't mean Hahn shouldn't pay lip service to the media about "being aggressive," but at the end of the line, the numbers are going to follow the win column, even if they show up a year late. The best thing he can do for the team, financially, is build a team that contends for several consecutive years. Up until recently, the given formula is sports marketing was 80% season ticket holders, 20% walk-up. In April/May/September, it's probably closer to 90-95% STH. As far as the group/one-off outings go, that's true...but I also think some of the bloom is definitely off that type of "Groupon" marketing.

QUOTE (flavum @ Nov 12, 2014 -> 06:53 PM) Sale just made some money: Chris Sale lhp 5 years/$32.5M (2013-17), plus 2018-19 options 5 years/$32.5M (2013-17), plus 2018-19 club options signed extension with Chicago White Sox 3/7/13 replaced 1 year/$0.6M deal signed 2/22/13 13:$0.85M, 14:$3.5M, 15:$6M, 16:$9.15M, 17:$12M, 18:$12.5M club option ($1M buyout), 19:$13.5M club option ($1M buyout) 2019 option increases 1) by $2.5M to $16M with a Cy Young in 2013-18 or 2) by $1.5M to $15M with a second- or third-place finish in Cy Young vote in 2013-18 award bonuses, including $15,000 for All-Star selection Whew. At first I read it as his 2015 salary going up to $15 million, which would have cut out another $9 million in payroll. Then I reread it more carefully. Congrats to Chris and his agent (I think).

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Nov 12, 2014 -> 05:17 PM) My favorite pitcher of theirs is that #5, as I think ???????? has a lot of potential to do some damage in this league. Kyle Gibson eats innings, and that would appear to be about it. Trevor May started 9 games, appeared in 10, had an ERA of 7.88 and a FIP of 4.77. My gut instinct tells me he's a reliever moving forward. Alex Meyer is a good pitcher, but he's still never pitched in the majors. Using your criteria, the Sox have Sale, Quintana, Rodon, Noesi, Danks, Montas, Carroll, Beck, and Danish as well. I think I know who is set up better from a pitching standpoint. If Gibson, a former first rounder, was on the White Sox, Don Cooper would have him as another Gavin Floyd, lol. Let's not forget that Noesi/Danks/Carroll ranked amongst the worst starters in MLB depending upon which peripheral you use. What's the biggest reason the White Sox played so well in 2012? No more Ozzie Guillen. I think you'll see a similar rejuvenation/new life out of the Twins. Just a hunch. Maybe I'm wrong, and they won't do anything between now and April 1st to improve their rotation.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Nov 12, 2014 -> 05:08 PM) Which 25% have the Twins ahead of the White Sox? Do they realize that the Twins pitching rotation is basically Phil Hughes and a bunch of janitors? Also, by saying "having all your eggs in the basket of Jose Abreu...." as if it's a bad thing is basically like saying "having good players is a bad thing because they can get hurt." Well DUH. The Royals have a LOT of balance, but no one superstar. Gordon or Perez aren't even that, although both those guys would be hard to replace. I'll go back to the Orioles' example. They lost Wieters, Machado and Chris Davis. And still were strong enough to win 96 and make it to the playoffs.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Nov 12, 2014 -> 05:08 PM) Which 25% have the Twins ahead of the White Sox? Do they realize that the Twins pitching rotation is basically Phil Hughes and a bunch of janitors? Also, by saying "having all your eggs in the basket of Jose Abreu...." as if it's a bad thing is basically like saying "having good players is a bad thing because they can get hurt." Well DUH. http://wtaq.com/blogs/sports/983/the-minne...rting-rotation/ Contingent upon the Twins spending money again (like they did with Hughes, Correia and Nolasco) on a couple of veteran 3-4 guys.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 12, 2014 -> 05:00 PM) Tigers resign Martinez. Ergo, the Minnesota Twins lineup appears. Obviously. The fact of the matter is that the White Sox can't wait too long or the Indians/Twins will pass us from below...while everyone's more concerned with the Tigers and Royals coming back down to the pack. Almost everyone has the Indians ahead of us and 25% have the Twins in 4th, too. (Having almost all of your eggs in the basket of Jose Abreu, Sale, Quintana and Eaton is also extremely dangerous, as a single injury to one of those four wipes that team out of contention.) The Orioles won 96 games despite losing Wieters, Machado and Chris Davis. We don't have anything approaching depth at a single position other than middle/utility infielders who may or may not be big league regulars. This isn't the Saints and Panthers battling it out for a .500 finish to make the playoffs.

The Rangers really bailed them out on Fielder. That said, they've had to part ways with Fister, Peralta, Infante...and I think the most underrated loss is Austin Jackson because of his defensive abilities in that huge CF. They never managed to replace that last year, despite the surprising offense from JD Martinez, Rajai Davis and Hunter (at his age). They sunk a lot of money into Soria, Nathan and Joba with little or no return. If Castellanos and Suarez both became All-Stars at 3B and SS, that would be one thing. Most likely they have one more year, two at best (and yes, it's getting annoying since this will be the 3rd year in a row AT LEAST we've been saying "wait 'til next year"). In effect, the Royals (losing in Game 7) and Tigers are hungrier, and more desperate/dangerous. This is probably Illitch's last big opportunity. Then the Indians have the young pitching and the Twins have Sano/Buxton/Arcia/Santana/Plouffe/Dozier/K.Vargas/Gibson/Meyer. 1. SS Danny Santana 2. 2B Brian Dozier 3. 1B Joe Mauer 4. DH Kennys Vargas 5. 3B Trevor Plouffe 6. RF Oswaldo Arcia 7. C Kurt Suzuki 8. LF Chris Parmalee 9. CF Jordan Schafer One of those last two will be replaced by Buxton...where/when Sano will play is the next question, although he probably won't be ready until July/August. As I said, IF IF IF Mauer hits again like he did in 2010, that's a very dangerous team, especially with the injections of Santana, Vargas and Buxton. A crowded field in the AL Central for sure.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 12, 2014 -> 02:18 PM) History dictates otherwise. Sox fans show up after a team has already been a winner, and not before. See 2006, and even 2007...lag effect, which traditionally is 4-5 years for a World Series champion. And that's exactly what happened, with 2007/2009 (despite the excitement over Peavy initially) expediting it. In the end, it's crazy to think Max Scherzer would need to bring in 400,000 fans, even. At this point, with nearly every baseball team but the bottom 5-7 for tv/radio/broadcast rights, ticket sales are somewhere in the 20-30% range in terms of total revenues. We've been over this topic numerous times. And the fact that the White Sox generated a higher amount of revenue with their lower attendance because of Top 4-6 prices being charged for tickets, parking, food, concessions, etc. (Now that has changed and we're closer to the middle and still losing customers/revenue, which must be scaring them a BIT). You can argue that the extra $25 million from the broadcast deal could offset Scherzer, but in all likelihood it's paying for Abreu and offsetting other losses caused by the likes of Dunn and Danks. Max Scherzer alone won't move the meter that much....maybe 50-100,000 in pre-sales for 2015. If the team was in first place the first 2-3 months and "dominant," that's when you would see attendance pick up substantially as summer hit, a number of sponsors jump back on the bandwagon, more revenue from luxury boxes/corporations, an increase in advertising buys and rates charged (which would benefit the White Sox due to the Comcast ownership share/s), a buyout of US Cellular and a new name for the stadium, etc. It seems the more nationally-televised playoff and World Series ratings go down (NFL football beat one of the final World Series games 6.4 to 2.7), the more baseball becomes popular around the world (Asian/Pacific Rim, Caribbean, Central and South America) because of multimedia/MLB.TV/GameDay Audio/Extra Innings, etc. Then there's also the good possibility the White Sox are in a much better position around 2018-2019 to increase their tv rights (maybe not like the Dodgers, Yankees, Red Sox or Rangers, but it will be substantial).

QUOTE (scs787 @ Nov 12, 2014 -> 01:48 PM) I mean you can point to Tanaka as a negative, but I can also point to Darvish who's thrown the 8th most innings since coming over. Hisashi Iwakuma, who came over the same year, ranked 35th in innings and he was a reliever for the first half of his first year. Or Hiroki Kuroda who in all but 1 season recorded 30+ starts Wei-Yin Chen of the Orioles, while Taiwanese, also fits that Iwakuma profile of being relatively unheralded and over-performing expectations. For every two Hideki Irabu's or Kei Igawa's, there's one success story. (The original "hit and miss" Asian pitchers were Nomo and Chan-Ho Park, along with Mac Suzuki). The Red Sox in particular have had a good stretch with Japanese relievers, especially Uehara. But, in the end, Dice-K and what transpired with Tanaka still stick in the craws of most GM's. Darvish was ouchy last year, too.